MUMBAI: Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs is making its first bet in the Indian etailing space by leading a Rs 640-crore ($100-million) round in online furniture retailer Pepperfry along with participation from new investorZodius Capital besides existing backers Norwest Venture Partners and Bertelsmann India Investments.

"Goldman has joined the growing list of world’s most sophisticated investors, from Morgan Stanley to DST Global betting on the market expected to grow to $50 billion by 2020. "We have a strong conviction for the theme of domestic consumption growth in India. Through this most recent partnership in Pepperfry.com, we intend to leverage our global expertise in the sector to help create a large, differentiated leader in India’s rapidly-growing ecommerce industry," said Ankur Sahu, co-head of Private Equity at Goldman Sachs Asia in a statement. The PE firm recently invested Rs 64 crore in Azure Hospitality, which runs a pan-Asian casual dining chain under the Mamagoto brand.

The new round of funding will help Pepperfry ramp up investments in infrastructure and technology, as it looks to compete with Ratan Tata-backed UrbanLadder and Rocket Internet-owned Fabfurnish. "Over the next 2-3 years, we will cross $1 billion in GMV and we want to be the place where India shops for home and furniture," said Ambareesh Murty, founder & CEO of Pepperfry.

Murty declined to disclose the value of his company in this latest round of funding. Pepperfry sees its topline doubling every 6-8 months, growing at over 300% as compared to last year. Manipal Group scion Ranjan Pai and former Infosys director Mohandas Pai have also invested in Pepperfry’s new round. Avendus Capital advised Pepperfry on the new round of funding.

Pepperfry, which reaches over 300 cities in India, plans to expand its logistics footprint to tier-3/4 towns in India. It also plans to double logistics fleet from 300 vehicles right now and increase distribution centres from 15 to 20 towns. Pepperfry will also quadruple its technology and engineering team.

"There is a large opportunity in the augmented reality space on the mobile and further enriching buyer experience on the web," said Murty, former eBay India head who started the company in 2011 as a fashion and lifestyle-focused portal. Before this round, Pepperfry had raised $28 million and will become one of the most-heavily capitalised vertical etailers.

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